Many people talk about ‘classical homeschool’, but few actually know what it means.  Classical Christian homeschooling generally occurs in three stages: 1) the grammar stage (grades 1-6); 2) the dialectic stage (grades 7-9); the rhetoric stage (grades 10-12).  The grammar stage corresponds to the development of the brain that is soaking up as much information about ‘what is’ – very little interpretation takes place in this stage, because the mind is phisologically not developed for this cognitive area of learning.  The ‘what is’ part of the homeschool curriculum can be used as a base for future learning.  The ‘why’ and ‘how’ stage of classical homeschool education should occur during the 7-9th grades, but may be useful for advanced students in the 5th grade.  The final rhetoric stages includes in-depth learning of a variety of subjects, usually limited to: Arts, Literature, History, Language, Math, Oratory, Science, Philosophy, Writing, and Bible.

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